


Sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel is a train.

by werepope (quiteparadise)



Series: 2014 Advent Calendar for a Filthy-Minded Athiest [5]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Father Christmas - Freeform, Language, M/M, Public Transportation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-05
Updated: 2014-12-05
Packaged: 2018-02-28 06:43:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2722592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quiteparadise/pseuds/werepope
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It goes like this: Liam gets on at Bethnal Green.  Zayn, already on the train, looks up from his book.  Liam smiles at him.  Zayn smiles back.  Zayn goes back to his book.  Liam gets off at Newbury Park.</p><p>They have never spoken.</p><p> </p><p>Advent calendar challenge: Traveling</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel is a train.

Liam gets on the same car of the same train every evening. He's a little bit obsessive like that. He likes things in their places. Likes knowing his schedule ahead of time. Likes to stick to it. He also rather likes one of the other people who is in the same car of the same train every evening.

It goes like this: Liam gets on at Bethnal Green. Zayn, already on the train, looks up from his book. Liam smiles at him. Zayn smiles back. Zayn goes back to his book. Liam gets off at Newbury Park.

They have never spoken.

Liam should probably follow Zayn's example and start reading while he travels, because as is he keeps himself amused by developing a rather involved fantasy about Zayn. Maybe "of Zayn" is a better way to phrase it.

In Liam's head, Zayn lives a life of wine-soaked nights spent in his cold little flat that's he's cramped up with stacks upon stacks of books. In Liam's head Zayn is usually draped like a nude model across a messy bed. In Liam's head he is silent and stationary. Utterly untouchable.

Tonight, at the stop after Liam's, after they've exchanged their smiles and retreated back into their fantasy worlds, a man in a Father Christmas suit gets on the train. He has a straining grocery bag hanging in one hand and seems to be having trouble walking straight.

Zayn and Liam look at the man in the Father Christmas outfit and then at each other. This happens occasionally, when something unexpected happens. Their nightly smiles have given them this leeway, this opening for brief and silent communication.

Zayn raises his eyebrows as if to say "Are you seeing this?" Liam shrugs – "'Tis the season." Zayn mirrors the shrug and goes back to his book.

Father Christmas takes the seat on Zayn's right.

Unlike Liam and Zayn, who respect the rule of headphones – I am wearing headphones, please do not try to speak to me – Father Christmas sways slightly into Zayn's space as the train moves forward and says: "Naughty or nice?"

Liam pulls out an earbud.

He has populated Zayn's world with an obsessive amount of detail, from the water stains on his claw foot tub to the cigarette burns on his duvet. But that's all backdrop. Scenery in which to imagine Zayn, who has stayed more or less pristine, existing only as much as Liam knows him. He has never imagined Zayn's voice.

He has a thick Northern accent. He sounds a bit like rough trade. Like the bad boy in a low budget porno. Not like the kind of guy who reads Umberto Eco while lounging artfully and smoking an endless train of turkish blend cigarettes out his narrow window.

It takes a moment for Liam to translate the sound of Zayn's voice into words.

"None of your business."

Father Christmas scoffs. Under the cheap faux fur trim of his hat, his hair is dark and shiny with grease or booze sweat. "I'm Father Christmas," he says.

"Shouldn't you know, then?" Zayn asks.

Father Christmas frowns. It's hard to tell with the beard on, but his brow goes all wrinkly. His watery eyes wobble in what might be indignation. "Someone wants a lump of coal in their stocking."

"I want you to fuck off, that's what I want."

Father Christmas pulls back in on himself, grumbling quietly. He gets off at the next stop.

In the shuffle of bodies, Liam gives up his hand grip to take up one closer to Zayn. Zayn looks up almost immediately. He lifts his brows in what Liam hopes is pleasant surprise. He pushes his headphones down around his neck.

"Missed opportunity," Liam says. "Not every day you get hit on by the personification of a holiday."

Zayn snorts. His smile looks stunningly good from this much closer. "Opportunity for what? Cleaning reindeer shit out of my carpet?"

"Come on now. You could have been the next Mother Christmas. Imagine the kinds of presents you'd get then."

Liam imagines clingy, holiday print pants and candy cane striped dildos.

"Nah," Zayn says. He lays his book down, spine up and open against his thigh. "'M not the mother type. I'd just be a bit on the side."

"Father Christmas's kept boy?"

"Whole different type of present."

Liam imagines that Zayn is now thinking about clingy, holiday print pants and candy cane striped dildos.

"Well you won't be getting anything now."

Zayn shrugs. He has a freckle in his left eye and his lashes are amazingly long. Liam is not often in the habit of noticing things like eyelashes and freckles. It occurs to him that he is probably staring. He hopes Zayn doesn't mind because he doesn't think he's going to be able to stop any time soon.

"What's your book about?" he asks.

"Uh." Zayn looks down, taking his hand off the cover like he's forgotten he was reading at all. "It's these two guys who have to try and find a dozen eggs during the Nazi siege on St. Petersburg."

Liam doesn't know anything about the Nazi siege on St. Petersburg. "Oh. Sounds, er…"

"There's cannibals," Zayn offers. He smiles when Liam's eyes go big. "You might like it."

"Yeah. Maybe I can borrow it off you when you're done."

Zayn's head dips in a nod. "Sure. Not like I'll never see you again, right?"

"Would you like to–" Liam bites his lip. "Would you like to, maybe, see me not on the train?"

When Zayn smiles this time, Liam can see the way he presses his tongue against the back of his teeth. "Yeah," he says. "I would like that."


End file.
